Content Object

PeoplePods stores all of the content it manages in Content Objects. These are generic storage containers that can be customized to contain any kind of content you desire.

At the bare minimum, a piece of PeoplePods content consists of a headline and a content type. The headline field is a simple text field used as the display title of the content. The type field is also a text field: you can create as many types of content as you want by specifying different values for this field.

Content object's also optional contains fields for body text, an extermal link, an editorial status field, and a privacy information field. These can be used together in any configuration.

But the real power of the content object comes through using the Meta Field functionality, which allows you to append any field you want to any content object. Using this ability, you can customize your content objects to include any and all information that you need to store.

With the meta fields and the dynamic content typing, PeoplePods gives you very flexible access to your content. You should be able to query and display anything you can image with a few lines of code.

Content Objects are stored in the content table in the database.

Content Objects should always be created through the main $POD object using the $POD->getContent() or $POD->getContents() functions.

Fields

id	the unique identifier of this content record in the db
userId	the unique identifier of the "author" of this record. will in the vast majority of cases be the same as createdBy
headline	REQUIRED - title of this content
type	REQUIRED - a short string that defines what type of content this is
body	the body text of this content
link	space to store an arbitrary URL
status	Editorial status field. Defaults to 'new' but can be set to 'approved' or 'featured'
createdBy	the unique identifier of the person who created this record.
parentId	the unique id of another piece of content considered to be the "parent" content, if any.
groupId	the unique id of the group this content is a member of, if any.
privacy	Describes the privacy setting of this piece of content. Defaults to public, indicating anyone can view this content. Can also be 'friends_only', 'group_only', or 'owner_only'
date	date this content was created
changeDate	date this content was last modified in any way
editDate	date the core values of this content were last upated
commentDate	date of the most recently added comment
flagDate	date of the most recent change to the status field.
yes_votes	number of yes votes that have been registered to this content
no_votes	number of no votes that have been registered to this content
yes_percent	percentage of total votes that are yes votes
no_percent	percentage of total votes that are no votes.
stub	URL friendly version of the headline which can also be used as a unique identifier for this post.
permalink	URL to post's permalink page
hidden	Default false. Set to true to hide a document from public view (as in non-destructive delete)

Examples

Create a simple piece of content with just the minimum info:

$content = $POD->getContent();
$content->set('headline','This is a new post!');
$content->set('type','post');
$content->save();
echo "Here is your new post:";
$content->permalink();

Now, create a different kind of content with some extra fields:

$content = $POD->getContent();
$content->set('type','event'); // ad-hoc create a new content type 
$content->set('headline','Chester's Birthday'); // event title
$content->set('body','Chester is having a birthday party!');
$content->save();  // create the record in the db so we can use meta fields.

$content->addMeta('startDate','2009-03-15'); // add a new field
$content->addMeta('endDate','2009-03-15'); // add a new field
$content->addMeta('please_bring','BEER!'); // add a new field

echo "Your new event has been created!  ";
$content->permalink();
echo "Start: " . $content->write('startDate');
echo "End: " . $content->write('endDate');

We can query for content of any type...

$posts = $POD->getContents(array('type'=>'post'));
$events = $POD->getContents(array('type'=>'event'));

Or, you could look for content that matches specific parameters.

// load all the posts the current user created
$my_posts = $POD->getContents(array(
  'type'=>'post',
  'userId'=>$POD->currentUser()->get('id')
));


// load all the events where the start date is today
$today = date("Y-m-d");
$todays_events = $POD->getContents(array(
  'type'=>'event',
  'm.name'=>'startDate',
  'm.value'=>$today
));

Relationships

Each piece of content has a set of predefined relationships to people and other pieces of content within the site. These relationships are represented by cleverly named functions that return other objects or stacks of objects.

• $Content->children() - returns a stack of content objects whose parentId is set to $Content's id
• $Content->comments() - returns a stack of comments associated with this content.
• $Content->files() - returns all the files associated with this content.
• $Content->tags() - returns a stack of all the tags asssigned to this content.
• $Content->group() - returns a group object defined by $content's groupId field.
• $Content->parent() - returns a content object defined by $Content's parentId field.
• $Content->author() - returns a person object defined by $content's userId field.
• $Content->creator() - returns a person defined by $content's createdBy field.

And don't forget, every content object inherits all the functions from the $Obj object. These functions include:

• $Content->get()
• $Content->set()
• $Content->write()
• $Content->writeFormatted()
• $Content->htmlspecialwrite()
• $Content->addMeta()
• $Content->removeMeta()
• $Content->getMeta()
• $Content->addFlag()
• $Content->removeFlag()
• $Content->toggleFlag()
• $Content->hasFlag()
• $Content->addTag()
• $Content->removeTag()
• $Content->hasTag()
• $Content->tagsFromString()
• $Content->tagsAsString()
• $Content->success()
• $Content->error()
• $Content->errorCode()
• $Content->asArray()

More about this function and it's related functions:

$Content->files()
$Content->output()
$Content->isEditable()
$Content->save()
$Content->delete()
$Content->addComment()
$Content->markCommentsAsRead()
$Content->goToFirstUnreadComment()
$Content->group()
$Content->setGroup()
$Content->changeStatus()
$Content->vote()
$Content->unvote()
$Content->permalink()
$content->addFile()

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